Pay Attention, Please
by aaaaaaaaaa-sa-a
Summary: Annabeth misinterprets the signals. Fluff. One-shot.


**AN: This is me getting over my Percy Jackson writer's block with sickening fluff. Enjoy.**

"Ugh, I'm gonna be sick."

"Even if you _are_ going to be sick, that gives you no right to place your feet on my dashboard." Keeping her eyes on the road, Annabeth reaches over and smacks Percy's legs away. "Do you know how much I paid for this car?"

"Sorry," Percy mumbles, tucking his feet under him. "But, seriously, I'm going to be sick."

"Why? It's only dinner with your mom and Paul."

"In which we tell them that we're, you know, dating!"

She raises an eyebrow, giving him a quick, steely look. "And that's a bad thing?"

"No! No! Not at all!" he hurries. "I just–You know that Mom's been wanting us to get together for years–"

"Has she now?"

"–and when we _do_ tell her, she'll release the doves or whatever and whip out that impromptu wedding she's been planning forever!"

"Impromptu means unplanned. Spontaneous. Accidental."

He gives his (favorite) smart-aleck a dry look. "Impromptu for _us_."

She shrugs. "Just making sure you knew what you were saying."

Smirking, he plants a hard kiss on her cheek. "Well, then, thank you."

"Gah!" She bats him away, and when he finally moves, she's wearing that fake grumpy expression, accompanied with scrunched up nose and a blush. It reminds him of a peeved kitten. "I'm driving here, Seaweed Brain."

"Right. Of course."

Before he retreats fully, he kisses her–a wet, slobbery kiss–cheek again, earning another "Gah!" and more of a blush. "You're infuriating, you know that, right?" Annabeth asks, wiping the spit off her cheek.

He grins. "Of course I do," he hums. "But, obviously not _that_ infuriating, or you would have gotten rid of me _long_ ago." She opens her mouth to respond, but he plants another sloppy kiss on the corner of her mouth.

"I swear to the gods above, Percy," she growls, turning a corner, "if you don't stop that right now, I'm going to kick you out of this car."

He holds his hand up, using the other to smother his giggles. She turns another corner, and he realizes that they're only two blocks from his house.

"In all seriousness," Percy says, "I do not want my mother marrying us right in that apartment."

Annabeth ponders this. A bit extreme, but not far off from what would happen if they told Sally and Paul early on in the night. But if they told them later…

"We'll tell them right before I leave," she decides.

"So, it'll be like, 'oh hey yeah, we're dating,' and then you'll leave me to the brunt of the questions?"

"At least I won't be around for Sally to _tie us a knot_."

He's silent for a moment, and she scans her brain for another plan, but then he agrees, "Yeah. That'll work."

"Good," she says, pulling into the parking lot of Percy's apartment building. "Because I do not have time to think of something else."

He leans over to give her kiss, but then thinks better of it, because his parents could be watching from the window. Instead, he climbs out his door (Annabeth would say it's hers, because it's her car) and opens hers. He bows and offers his hand. "Milady."

He can practically _feel_ the eye roll, but her hand clamps onto his, and she lets him help her up. She curtsies–something hard to do in jeans with no skirt to grab–and drawls in a British accent, "Thank you, m'idiot–oh, my apologies. I meant _lord_."

" _Sure_ you did," he says, accompanied by a glare with no real venom behind it.

She gasps, bringing an offended hand over her heart. "I had no ill intention. Honest!" she insists, still using the accent. "Sometimes things like that just slip out!"

They hold each other's gazes for a moment before dissolving into giggles.

"Okay! Okay!" Percy cuts off his own laughter, trying to contain himself. "We need to stop…you know…"

"Flirting?" she finishes with a raised eyebrow and a cocky smirk.

His cheeks burn. "Yeah. That."

"Okay. No more flirting." Annabeth holds her hands up before offering him her left pinky. "Pinky swear?"

"I think this may count as flirting," he says, but wraps his finger around hers anyway.

"Nonsense. This is the _highest oath one could do_. Thereth be _nothing_ flirty about it."

"Completely deadly and serious," he agrees, setting his lips in a firm line.

She nods solemnly.

And then they're trying to keep in giggles again. They climb up the steps leading to his door, wiping away tears and clutching their stomachs.

Percy only inserts the key after they have caught their breath. He swings open the door. "We're home!" he shouts, and his hearts skips a beat in his chest at how _intimate_ that sounds. We're home. _We're_ home. As in he and Annabeth, are _home_.

"There you two are!" Sally tackles them both with hugs; Percy wrapping his arms around his mother warmly, Annabeth awkwardly patting her back.

Paul smiles at them from where he's leaned against the wall. "Sally was just beside herself with worry," he says. "I mean, a whole six minutes late. Just _think_ of what could have happened." Sally flicks her husband's elbow. "Ow!"

"Get over it," Sally teases, before turning to her son and his guest. "Annabeth, dear, how is your new school? Do you like it?"

The blonde gives a nod and a kind smile. "Yeah. It's great. There's this really cool architecture program that…"

The Jacksons let her rant for a couple minutes. Sally and Paul actually seem interested in what she's saying (something about school and architecture and then her new car), but Percy tunes her out, just _staring_ at her. She's breathtakingly gorgeous when she gets like this. Her eyes light up and she's wearing this _adorable_ smile and using her hands in wide, energetic gestures.

His mother gives him a knowing smile at his (probably lovesick) gaze, and, cheeks burning, he immediately rips his eyes away from Annabeth.

"Percy, dear," Sally says after Annabeth is done and Paul almost shoots into a rant of his own, "could you help me set the table?"

"Sure, Mom."

"I could help, too," Paul volunteers.

"Nah." Sally shakes her head. "We'll let you two brainiacs nerd it out."

"Hey!"

"It's true," she says with a sly smile, leading Percy into the kitchen.

Percy collects all the silverware and plates while Sally gets the roast out of the oven. He can see Paul's back and Annabeth's face as they go back and forth on the school system.

She glances at Percy. He immediately places a fork above his upper lip, pretending it to be a mustache, and takes a bow.

 _No flirting,_ she mouths, a sly smile curling around the words. She directs her attention back to Paul, shaking her head to whatever he's saying.

In a small amount of time, there's food and plates and utensils on the table. Paul pulls out Sally's chair before sitting down next to her. Percy and Annabeth sit opposite to them.

Annabeth's knee bounces and her fingers curl and uncurl. Paul was a worthy foe in their debate, but he was no match for when she _fully_ used her brain. Unfortunately, achieving that level of thought got her body–and, in turn, her ADHD–going.

She wants to do something about it, but it would probably be rude for her to get up and go for a sprint outside, so she braves through her ADHD spell.

Drumming her fingers against her thigh, her brain comes up with a million different ways to say "It's good. Thank you," about the bread-encrusted chicken she's currently chewing.

Percy taps her shoulder, and she cranes her neck to face him. He points down at his lips. She's thinking so many different things right now (saying 'thank you,' the temperature of the chicken, figuring out twenty-seven multiplication and division problems at once, trying to calm her ADHD down, etc. etc.) that her only thought about it is _What an odd way to ask for a kiss_ before she leans forward and slants her lips over his.

"I _KNEW_ IT!" Sally yells at the top of her lungs.

Annabeth's eyes widen, and she pulls back to curse herself in ancient Greek. "Shoot," she mutters, only loud enough for Percy to hear. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to…I wasn't thinking–I mean, I was _thinking_ , about a lot actually, but not about _that_ at…that particular moment?"

He's a bit shocked. _Well, there goes our plan._

Her eyes are searching his. "Are you mad?" she whispers.

"No," he says, snapping out of his trance immediately. "Never."

She smiles something soft, and he leans forward to lick the bit of crumb off her lip that he had noticed earlier. She furrows her brows.

"You had a little something there," he explains, reaching forward to take her hand in his. "That's what I was gesturing at, _girlfriend_."

He's about to kiss her, but Sally's shout of, "Pay up, Paul! I called it!" shakes the couple out of their little world.

"You _bet_ on us?" Annabeth asks incredulously as they watch Paul slap a ten dollar bill onto his wife's palm.

"Of course," she says, stuffing the bill in her pocket. "We knew you two were going to get together sooner or later. I just knew it would be sooner. I mean, who _wouldn't_ want grandkids sooner than later?"

" _Mom_ ," Percy groans.

 **AN: There. The plot bunny has been killed. Hope you guys enjoyed!**

 **This was not beta'd, so all mistakes are mine. If you see any errors, please inform me so I may fix them.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians.**

 **Constructive criticism welcome, and reviews make my day!**


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